FIFA's World Cup draw skewed by the war in Ukraine

The World Cup in Qatar will begin on April 1 with the draw for the group stage of the tournament, which will be played from November 21 to December 18 with the grand final. The draw will have some adjustments for the teams in the group due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the delays in the qualification schedule due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

FIFA announced on Tuesday the new draw procedure since only 29 of the 32 teams will be selected by then due to the war in Ukraine and the coronavirus crisis. Therefore, it will not be until June when the last three places will be defined, including one from Europe that will be determined by Ukraine’s performance in the play-offs. The other two spots will be decided by the winners of the intercontinental play-offs: South America-Asia and CONCACAF-Oceania.

The 32 participating teams will be divided into eight pots, depending on sporting criteria of FIFA’s ranking that will be published on March 31 after the international period, according to a document explaining the draw procedure.

🏆🇶🇦 #Mundial | La FIFA publicó el procedimiento de sorteo del Mundial

🇶🇦 Qatar sera cabeza de serie del grupo A.

📍En base al ranking FIFA, del 1° a 7° puesto son los integrantes del Bombo 1.

📍8° a 15° Bombo 2

📍16° a 23° Bombo 3

📍24° a 28° Bombo 4, sumado a los + pic.twitter.com/2EYrYyGIDf

— BLM (@BLMDeporOK) March 22, 2022

Hosts Qatar will open in Pot #1, along with defending champions France, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, England, and Spain. The final places will be drawn between Italy and Portugal, who are in the same European play-off bracket. As usual, the host nation will be placed in Group A's No. 1 spot to take center stage in the opening match at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor on November 21.

Qatar is the only team of the 15 qualified so far that already knows its schedule but is waiting to know who its opponents will be. One of the historical champions, Germany—the 2014 World Cup winner—was placed in Pot #2, as it has been out of the top 10 of the world ranking for more than three years.

¡Ahora es tu oportunidad! 🎟 🏆#WorldCup

— Copa Mundial FIFA 🏆 (@fifaworldcup_es) January 19, 2022

FIFA resolved the uncertainty over how to insert the three teams to be defined by reserving places in Pot #4. The teams involved could end up in a tougher group than their ranking merits because they could not complete their matches before the draw. Ukraine, Colombia, and Wales could be affected by this measure.  If these three teams qualify, they would be placed in Pot #3 due to their good FIFA ranking.

So far, only 15 teams have secured their participation in the World Cup in Qatar, while 14 places will be defined in the matches that will be played around the world during the qualifiers starting this week.